


Black Apologies

by thatwhirringsound



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel's Feathers, Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:59:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/979197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatwhirringsound/pseuds/thatwhirringsound
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean doesn't realize what they mean for a long time</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black Apologies

**Author's Note:**

> [My Tumblr](http://forgottentrenchcoats.tumblr.com)
> 
> [Livejournal](http://whirringsounds.livejournal.com)

It started after Sam left.

He found it lying on the passenger of the Impala, black and glistening in the sun. It was amazingly soft to the touch and much too large to be a regular feather. He almost threw it away, but something compelled him to keep it. So he tucked it in the glove compartment and carried on, quickly forgetting in the wake of his next mission

The next one showed up next to his bed after he returns from the future.

This one he tucked away in his jacket pocket, again left wondering why he didn’t just get rid of it.

But then they kept coming.

The Cambion, the incident with Gabriel, Anna almost killing their parents, Sam being locked in the panic room after their run-in with Famine, even one right before Castiel sacrificed himself to send the angels away after harsh words were exchanged between them. Soon Dean had a small shoebox filled with the black feathers in the trunk of his car, and still the feathers kept coming.

He never asked about it. Even though Sam briefly brought it up when he caught Dean playing with one absently while he thought over a particularly hard case they were having. He shrugged it off and it wasn’t brought up again.

It wasn’t until a feather appeared on the pillow next to his after the fight with Eve that he understands.

Whether for things he had done, or was about to do, they were his silent plea for forgiveness. And that scared Dean when he couldn’t figure out what this one was for…and breaks his heart when he finds out.

Dean fingers his most recent discovery as he walks away from his friend, surrounded by Holy Oil and looking as if his world was ending…again. 

The feathers stop showing up after that.

And, if years later he finds another gleaming black feather perched on his steering wheel after they have their conversation about what happened in Purgatory, and a smile graces his face, nobody but him and the shoebox in the trunk need to know.


End file.
